SCHOOLS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23204, 31 May 1937, Page 7

SCHOOLS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

TO I'HE EDITOR Sir,—Your footnote to my letter says I digressed from the subject of the heading, but you forget, Sir, that when I replied to " Democrat's" first letter his heading was " Schools of Political Thought." You refer to my last letter in reply to "Democrat" as " the above with its garbled history of municipal finance." I admit I have not the same knowledge of finance as some anti-Labourites who, when I was on the council, sold land for street widening purposes to the City Council. To borrow, from memory, a phrase once written in a letter to vnur paper by a very dear friend and Labour comrade of mine. "The financiers not only understood finance; they could smell it by instinct." And when I protested that the price being paid for the portion resumed by the city for street widening purposes was out of all proportion to the rateable value of the land, m ' protests were brushed on one side on the grounds that there was such a thing as a poetic value, an aesthetic value, etc.. which could be summed up as a sentimental value. I have since found out that men are financiers of the first water who could extract values on such psychological values. For instance, I live on the hills with over 100 acres of ground My poetical feelings and artistic tastes make me love to view the mountain scenery, the snow-clad tops, and the distant ocean in its various moods T attach value from a health point of view as well, because of the peace of mind I enjoy far from the maddening throng. Yet. should I maybe ask for a house big enough to accommodate all mv family so their artistic «en=;e could be developed in such lovely surroundings would it be granted? I Tear to try it as conversations with valuators, both Government and private, lead one to believe that in country districts there is 'only one value on which money is lent and thai is its commercial or letting value. Tliev hint that, should I die. the problem is would anyone else be found with the same artistic sense to want to live in scenes where his eye could be gratified-' In short, the value depended on its power to let. Yet anti-Labourites on the City Council, ignoring the fact lhat the street-widening gave a greater commercial value, decided that this non-negotiable thing, sentimental value, was of still greater value than letting value, and paid huge sums of monev for half of which the Tramways Department was responsible No wonder that at the community singing I met some of these sellers enthusiastically joining in the song, " There's a silver lining." There was, but not in the ratepayers' pockets. A private

enterprise tramline would not be called on to pay many of the sums of money that were paid. I hope yet to get completed a return that will show the harm that was done to the service by this means. Your correspondent " H 10" should sign himself "H 20," as if he ever was associated with me he has watered his principles down a lot since thai time. The farmer is entitled to a living wage as well as a wage worker whose wages are from time to time determined according to the cost of living, and the Government will do the right thing and see justice done to the unemployed, too.—l am, etc.. J. E. IVlacManus. Chain Hills. Mosgicl.